Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Benitez issues warning to Porto

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez believes his side's 8-0 home thrashing of Besiktas will put fear into their next Champions League opponents Porto.
The Reds now need to beat Porto at Anfield and win in Marseille in their final two group games to secure their progress to the knockout stages.
"The next one is against Porto and at least we will have confidence and the supporters will believe," said Benitez.
"Porto need to come here to Anfield and they will be worried for sure."
He added: "The rest of Europe will also be aware of what we have done.
"But in the end we still have to win those last two games, regardless of how many goals we scored this time."
Yossi Benayoun notched a hat-trick, Peter Crouch and Ryan Babel each scored twice, while Steven Gerrard also grabbed a goal as Liverpool's victory saw them bag a record Champions League win.
"We have been creating a lot of chances in previous games, but not scoring them," said Benitez.
"Today we scored early and the game opened up. Besiktas also had to win to keep their chances of qualifying going so they had to come out and try to attack and that gave our forwards space to use.
"It made our movement easier, the space was there and our strikers were on very good form.
"But we still must win the next two and then wait to see if it is enough."
The win was also Liverpool's biggest in Europe for 27 years and leaves them on four points, with Group A leaders Porto on eight points and Marseille in second on seven points.
"When you create chances, score hat-tricks and play that well, it gives all the front players - Yossi, Ryan and Peter, plenty of confidence that they can attack and be successful," said Benitez.
"If you score then you have confidence, that is the difference from the way we have played recently.
"But this was an all-round performance by the whole team. (Andriy) Voronin did not score but he was hugely influential in what went on, his play was unselfish and effective.
"He did a tremendous job, and the defence kept a clean sheet so there was very little for me to complain about, just a few minor things."
Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam, who did not answer questions at the post-match news conference, was shell-shocked and apologised to the club's fans.
"It was a very bad night for our team, and fans," he said. "The result was very upsetting for us and I would like to say sorry to all our fans.
"It is very difficult to accept this result, but life does go on and we have to work much harder now to improve in the future. I can promise our fans we will do that."

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